Finland is one of the most ethnically and culturally homogeneous countries in Europe. Nevertheless, Finns have been quick to incorporate ideas and impulses from Russia, elsewhere in Scandinavia, and continental Europe, particularly in the arts, music, architecture, and the sciences, but in each instance these influences have evolved into a form that is typically Finnish.

Despite their strong neighbours to the east and west, Finns have preserved and developed the Finnish language, while adapting it to new terminology as needed; for example, the word tietokone (“knowledge machine”) was coined as the Finnish word for “computer” instead of adopting a variant from another language.

Finns also have kept their cultural identity intact despite the powerful outside influences of neighbouring Finnic, Baltic, and Germanic peoples. Indeed, the traditional region of Karelia (now divided between Finland and Russia), where the songs of the Finnish national epic Kalevala originated, bears little influence from either Swedish or Russian culture.

The best-known Finnish regional groups are the Savolainen, Karjalainen, Hämäläinen, and Pohjalainen (from the Savo, Karelia, Hame, and Ostrobothnia regions, respectively). These groups are often characterized with standard descriptors; for example, the Karjalainen are frequently referred to as “talkative.” Other regional stereotypes exist for those from Kainuu, Finland proper, and the Satakunta region, but these characterizations are not nearly as common in popular media as are those for the first four groups.

Daily life and social customs

Many Finnish customs are closely associated with forests, which Finns have historically seen not as dark foreboding places but rather as offering refuge and shelter. In one of Finland’s signature literary works, Seven Brothers, 19th-century writer Aleksis Kivi depicts the socially inept brothers’ flight to the protection of the woods. Today, on weekends and during holidays, Finns flee from urban stress to their forest summerhouses.

Other customs associated with trees and wood are alive and well in Finland. Bonfires are lit at Midsummer, the doorways of houses are decorated with birches, and leafy birch whisks are still used in the traditional wooden sauna. On Easter, mämmi, a pudding made from malt and rye flour, is traditionally eaten from containers made of (or made to resemble) birch bark. In late winter, while snow covers the ground, birch branches are brought indoors to remind the household of the coming spring.

Although Finns consider Santa Claus to have his permanent home in Korvatunturi, in northern Finland, the spruce Christmas tree is a relative newcomer to the country, having made its first appearance in the 1820s. Now the Christmas tree is a fixture of Finnish Christmas celebrations, which also involve special foods, including rice porridge (made with milk and cinnamon), a baked glazed ham, and a potato and carrot or rutabaga gratin. The holiday is not complete without a Christmas sauna bath.

Wood is an essential component of the typical Finnish sauna, which is almost universally constructed out of birch or other sturdy wood beams. Bathers sit on wooden benches, splashing water on the hot stones of the stove and whisking each other with birch branches, just as their ancestors would have done millennia earlier. Traditionally, the sauna was a sacred place for the Finns, used not only for the weekly sauna bath but also for ritual purposes. This was particularly the case for those rituals performed by women, such as healing the sick and preparing the dead for burial. The sauna was also used for doing laundry and for key farming activities, such as curing meat and fermenting and drying malt. Given its importance to the farm economy, it is logical that the sauna was originally built within the enclosure surrounding the farm’s outbuildings. The current placement of most saunas on a lakeside or coastal inlet goes back only to the early 20th century, following the fashion of the gentry’s villas.

For a long time the sauna (whose name comes from a Finnish-Sami word) was usually heated only once a week, because it took a whole day to prepare it to stand several rounds of bathers (with men and women bathing separately). Many Finns believe sauna baths provide healing for the mind and body, and they are taken with almost religious reverence. Although not playing the central role it does in Finnish culture, the custom of sauna bathing is also widespread among the other Finnic peoples in the Baltic region—the Estonians, Karelians, Veps, and Livonians—as well as among Latvians and Lithuanians.

The arts

Finland’s national epic, the Kalevala, compiled in the 19th century by the scholar Elias Lönnrot from old Finnish ballads, lyrics, and incantations, played a vital part in fostering Finnish national consciousness and pride. Indeed, the development of almost all Finland’s cultural institutions and activities has been involved with and motivated by nationalist enthusiasm. This theme can be demonstrated in the growth and development of Finnish theatre and opera, in literature and music, in art and architecture, and also in sports. The festivals of various arts, held annually at places such as Helsinki, Vaasa, and Kaustinen, and Finland’s many museums show an awareness of the individuality and importance of Finland’s contribution to world culture. Savonlinna, in particular, is celebrated for its annual opera festivals.

Theatre, opera, and music

Drama in Finland is truly popular in the sense that vast numbers act in, as well as watch, theatrical productions. Besides the dozens of theatre companies in which all the actors are professionals, there are some in which a few professionals or even the producer alone are supplemented by amateur performers. And there are amateur theatrical companies in almost every commune.

The country’s most important theatre is the National Theatre of Finland, established in 1872 with Kaarlo Bergbom as producer and manager; its granite building in Helsinki was built in 1902. There are also several other municipal theatres. One of the most exciting in the country is the Pyynikki Open Air Theatre of Tampere, the revolving auditorium of which can be moved to face any of the natural sets. There are innumerable institutions connected with the theatre in Finland, including the Central Federation of Finnish Theatrical Organizations. There is a wide repertory of Finnish as well as international plays. The Finnish theatre receives some degree of government assistance.

The main centre for opera is the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki; the Savonlinna Opera Festival takes place every summer. The international success of Finnish singers such as Karita Mattila, Jorma Hynninen, and Soile Isokoski has added to the continuing national enthusiasm for opera. Several Finnish operas, including The Last Temptations by Joonas Kokkonen and The Horseman by Aulis Sallinen, gained notoriety in the late 20th and early 21st century.

The dominant figure in Finnish music during the first half of the 20th century was Jean Sibelius, the country’s best-known composer, who brought Finnish music into the repertoire of concert halls worldwide. Other renowned composers include Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, and Einojuhani Rautavaara. The Sibelius Academy in Helsinki is a world-famous centre of musical study. The city is also the location of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The Sibelius violin competition and Mirjam Helin song competition are held there every five years. There are annual music festivals in Helsinki and several other cities. Internationally known Finnish conductors include Paavo Berglund, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and Osmo Vänskä.

Literature

Epic prose has played and continues to play an important role in Finnish literature. Seitsemän veljestä (1870; Seven Brothers) by Aleksis Kivi is considered to be the first novel written in Finnish. Other early leading prose writers include Frans Eemil Sillanpää, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1939. Although Mika Waltari represented newer trends in literature, it was his historical novels, among them Sinuhe, egyptiläinen (1945; The Egyptian), that brought him fame. Väinö Linna, a leading postwar writer, became known for his war novel Tuntematon soltilas (1954; The Unknown Soldier) and for the trilogy Täällä Pohjantähden alla (1959–62; Under the North Star). Other novelists have written in shorter forms, but the broad epic has remained popular, particularly among writers describing the contradictions in Finnish life from the turn of the century to modern times. One of the central figures in the Finnish modernist movement of the 1950s was poet and playwright Eeva Liisa Manner, perhaps best remembered for her poetry collection Tämä matka (“This Journey,” 1956). Other well-known Finnish authors include Kari Hotakainen, Leena Lehtolainen, Rosa Liksom, Asko Sahlberg, and Johanna Sinisalo.

Literature written in Swedish has had a long tradition in Finland. Among 19th-century writers, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, the national poet, and Zacharias Topelius played leading roles. Later 20th-century poets such as Edith Södergran had a strong influence on the modern poetry of both Finland and Scandinavia. One of Finland’s most beloved and widely translated authors, Tove Jansson, wrote her many books about the Moomin family in Swedish. The Swedish language continues to be used in Finnish literature, and writers such as Kjell Westö, Märta Tikkanen, Monika Fagerholm, and Jörn Donner are widely read in Finland and abroad.

Art, architecture, and design

From the time that the Kalevala inspired the paintings of Die Brücke Expressionist Akseli Gallén-Kallela, there has been a distinctive school of Finnish painters, but the Finnish artistic genius has been continually drawn to three-dimensional work. Sculpture is important, highly abstract, and experimental; Eila Hiltanen’s monument to Sibelius in Helsinki is composed of chrome, metal, and steel tubes.

Modern Finnish architecture is among the most imaginative and exciting in the world. Its development was closely allied to the nationalist movement, and among its pioneers were the internationally renowned Eliel Saarinen, whose work is exemplified by the National Museum and the Helsinki railway station, and Lars Sonck, whose churches in Helsinki and Tampere are particularly notable. Finnish women were also early innovators as architects, including Wiwi Lönn and Signe Hornborg, the latter one of the first formally trained female architects in the world.

In the 20th century the idea of functionalism was developed by Gustaf Strengell. In the 1920s Alvar Aalto and Erik Bryggman began experimenting with regional variations on the International Style. Among the most striking examples of Aalto’s work are the Paimio Sanatorium, the library at Viipuri, and Finlandia Hall, a concert and congress hall in Helsinki. There is general experimentation, using concrete and metals, in Finnish industrial buildings and flats and in environmental design, as at the garden town of Tapiola outside Helsinki. The new generation of architects has continued these standards. Architects such as Juha Ilmari Leiviskä, known for his innovative churches, and Pekka Helin and Tuomo Siitonen, whose flexible and adaptive working spaces are intended to encourage creative thinking, have been lauded at home and abroad.

Finnish design—especially in glass, porcelain, and textiles—became internationally known during the postwar period. Factories such as the well-known Arabia and Marimekko in Helsinki have given artists a free hand to develop their ideas and skills. Tapio Wirkkala, Kaj Franck, and Timo Sarpaneva in glassware, Marjatta Metsovaara in textiles, and Dora Ljung in ryijy, a type of knotted pile-weave rug, are among the best-known designers.

Cultural institutions

Finland’s public cultural institutions are made up of a big, varied, and comprehensive network. The institutions are largely supported, planned, and organized by national and local authorities. The planning of cultural policies is in the purview of the Finnish Ministry of Education. Finnish arts and cultural activities are considered important not only to a strong national identity but as a valuable export and source of international interest. Since 1969, Finland has administered a system of artists’ grants that allocate a tax-free monthly stipend (for a variety of periods) to artists working in architecture, motion pictures, crafts and design, dance, literature, music, theatre, photography, and other visual arts. Public support for artists is also made available through grants and subsidies for ‘‘high-quality productions’’—including films, photographic art books, and crafts and design—and by purchasing works of art for public buildings and spaces.

Finns are also active in creating culture on an amateur basis. People participate eagerly in cultural clubs and organizations, local choirs and orchestras, and local dance, theatre, and dramatic societies, along with other similar groups. These groups organize a wide variety of year-round local and regional cultural events throughout the country.

Of Finland’s more than 1,000 museums, about 200 are dedicated to the arts. The national art museum is the Finnish National Gallery, composed of the Ateneum Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, and the Central Art Archives. There are also a number of regional art museums.

Libraries are especially important cultural institutions in Finland, and Finns are among the world’s most avid library users. Since the founding of its first library, in 1794 in Vaasa, Finland has developed a comprehensive network of tens of millions of books and other items in its plentiful public libraries, including a seagoing library to serve the needs of islanders. Because of their important role in public education and service, especially in their use as civic meeting places and cultural centres, libraries are highly regarded and well funded by the Finns. The Helsinki University Library is also the National Library of Finland.

Sports and recreation

In Finland the basic national sport—which originally was a necessary means of winter transportation—is cross-country skiing. Nationalism also encouraged the development of special proficiency, which was fostered by ski fairs and competitions held at Oulu beginning in the late 1890s. A century later, Finns were still making their mark on the sport, not least being Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen, who won seven Olympic gold medals in the 1980s and ‘90s.

An interest in other athletics developed from the time that the Finns took part in the interim Olympic Games held in Athens in 1906. Finland has excelled in Olympic track and field as well as winter sports, especially in distance running, in which the tradition of “Flying Finns” includes Hannes Kolehmainen, Ville Ritola, Lasse Virén, and Paavo Nurmi, who won six nine gold medals in Olympic middle- and long-distance running events in the 1920s, becoming a national hero. Other popular sports are waterskiing, riding, fishing, shooting, ice hockey, and pesäpallo, a Finnish version of baseball.

Media and publishing

Freedom of the press is guaranteed by the 1919 constitution and the Freedom of the Press Act (also 1919); both contain provisions safeguarding editorial rights and outlining press responsibilities. The Supreme Court can suppress publications under certain circumstances, but in general there are few restrictions apart from those governing libel and copyright.

Newspaper publication began in Finland in 1771 by the learned Aurora Society, and the Åbo Underrättelser, published in Swedish, has been in operation since 1824. Finns are among the world’s most voracious newspaper readers, and the country ranks near the top of newspapers sold per capita. Most of Finland’s many newspapers are independently owned and operated. The national Finnish News Agency (Oy Suomen Tietotoimisto; founded 1887) is independent and owned by the press.

The state-run Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yleisradio Oy [YLE]; established 1926) operates a number of nationwide television networks—both public service and commercial—along with several digital channels and offers programming in Swedish. YLE also owns Radio Finland, which broadcasts in Finnish, Swedish, English, and Russian. Jointly owned by Finland, Sweden, and Norway, Sámi Radio provides radio service to the Sami areas in northern Lapland.